PDA with built in GPS and a big screen

Buff20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 22

Evening All!

It's been about three years since I was last on here. I've had much fun travelling around with an Acer n35 running CoPilot and it's now time to upgrade.... Only they seem to have stopped making PDAs! There are lots of clever phones, mostly with smaller screens and larger price tags.

Are there any still on the market that will do the job the old Acer did? It was a fairly basic/low-quality machine, but it had a big screen and a built-in GPS.

I want to stick with Co-Pilot (though the newer version) as it has the facility for planning routes on the PC and also allows unlimited waypoints. That was unusual three eyars ago.

So....any tips on a suitable machine on which to run it?

Thanks!

Geoffrey

Darren · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 9:58 pm Post subject:

PDA's all seem to be Phone enabled these days though they do at least come with larger screens in some guises.

The PDA only devices seem to be a thing of the past. The n35's screen was 3.5" which was and still is a fairly common size?
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Darren Griffin

DennisN · Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 11:25 pm Post subject:

My HTC Advantage X7510 has a lovely big screen. It is phone and GPRS enabled as well as GPS. But it was rather expensive! Sad

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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

aj2052 · Posted: Thu Jun 04, 2009 2:10 am Post subject:

Looking at the Asus website it would appear that the Asus a696 PDA is still current, I paid £180 about 12 months or so ago, very versatile WM6 PDA with wIFI,bLuetooth, good screen and reasonably rugged, with integral GPS receiver, my only complaint is slow signal pickup although sirf3, otherwise very happy with mine, plus it will run most current nav programs including Garmin,Tttn7,Mcguider,Igo8,memory map etc.

Believe me this will knock the socks off the old slow n35, similar tyle but many extras and uptodate.
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Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

Buff20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 22

Thanks AJ. I've emailed Asus through the website and had no response. Let me know when you've ifnished with yours and I may buy it off you!

aj2052 · Posted: Mon Jun 08, 2009 9:23 pm Post subject:

Sorry no plans for selling, Just done a quick search and superetraders.co.uk are showing it at about £189 incl vat but no stock, when I bought mine nobody had them on stock for long and I had to dodge between 2 or 3 sellers and i was worried watching stock rapidly going down whilst waiting for delivery, perhaps you coulld email them for info or fill in the "notify when in stock" on their website. if your around NW Leics you can se it working.
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Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

Buff20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 22

I've emailed several suppliers via Google and none of them has any, and they say it's unlikely they'll be getting any more! The only options I can see are Europe and the US (where they appear to be plentiful!)

I guess they have more up-to-date devices they want to sell on the UK market?

Buff20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 22

Another thought - does anyone have an opinion on the Asus 636? I guess it's the little brother of the 696? But seems to do the same job - and probably a lot better than the old N35.

Thanks!

aj2052 · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:00 pm Post subject:

From memory and without looking it up,I think its the same animal as the a696 but without wifi and perhaps bluetooth and not sure but may be slower processor.
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Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

aj2052 · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 4:02 pm Post subject:

If i also remember the n35 was a slow old dog and the 636 is virtually the same but possibly faster and although never had my hands on a n35 would imagine better built.
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Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

Buff20 · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 06, 2006 Posts: 22

aj2052 · Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2009 10:08 pm Post subject:

The Asus is stainless Steel, but i think it was the a626 which was the little brother at 312mhz against the a696 416mhz, it would seem that it did have wifi and b/t for me I would consider it slightly underpowered because I find that you need high speed cards even on the a696.
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Moto G5s Plus, Sygic 17.4.8

CaptainDrift · Regular Visitor Joined: Nov 16, 2006 Posts: 248

There is the Mio P560, has most of the same features, doesnt come with software so an run anything.

Gretel · Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2009 11:46 am Post subject: PDA running TOMTOM

HI there,
I use a Palm Treo 680 as a successful PDA with easy sync to PC etc. It has a phone use as well but I only use it rarely when signal is low on my mobile, I have a different sim card from another mobile company in the PDA so its rare to get caught out without a mobile signal!
Currently I use TomTom Navigator 5 on an SD card in the PDA with a separate GPS receiver connected via Bluetooth. Yes the maps are now a bit out of date and I need to upgrade, however, I have to say that the GPS connection is almost instant, maps are very clear on the screen and it hasn't got me lost yet! Very Happy

One drawback, after doing a hot sync to PC I have to remember to do a soft reset on the PDA (simple proceedure - take the battery out and put it back again instantly, takes seconds) otherwise the navigation app doesn't want to connect to the GPS for some reason Embarassed

Does anybody have a quick solution to this please?

jeta1 · Posted: Fri Apr 09, 2010 11:23 am Post subject: HTC HD2

Have just had my works phone ungraded and have received HTC HD2, the screen is huge (4.3") and it comes with a 15 day trial of CoPilot.

Upgraded my personal phone a couple of months back and got an iphone, thought the screen on that was great but the screen on this HTC is something else. Should meet the OP's requirments.

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